Saturday, July 21, 2012

Upside Down Plum Cake

I was baking a cheesecake today and... ahem... things did not go as planned. New York style cheesecake, as classic as they come. For my Russian blog, to share this wonderful American invention with the people of Russia :). You can easily buy cheesecake in coffee shops and restaurants there these days (after all, Starbucks is all over the place now), but few people know how to make it at home. So I decided, why not. Nice and reliable. How-evah! ALL the recipes out there make 10-12 servings. You know, for a nice, tall, regal cheesecake in a 9-inch springform pan. But who has 10-12 people readily available to consume this cake? Well, I did not at the moment. No big parties planned, no potlucks or bake sales; just the desire to bake and photograph a cheesecake.

So I decided to cut the recipe in half. And for some reason, I thought the appropriate pan size would be 6 inches. I now know it is wrong. The correct size for half of the 9-inch recipe is a 7-inch pan. Huuuge difference. So there it sits, my cheesecake, in the oven. With its sides trying desperately to rise above the limitations of the pan walls. Just like we do sometimes, I suppose... I just hope that unlike this cake we don't always FALL from the effort :)). Sorry guys, just couldn't resist taking this analogy a little further :)

What did work great is this upside down plum cake. I'm not a fan of the classic upside down pineapple cake, and even Tarte Tatin leaves me unexcited, but plums work great with the idea! They are tart and nicely counteract the brown sugar sauce they're baked with. I found the recipe in Bon Appetit and over the years have tweaked it to match my taste. And fruit makes such a great baking ingredient (such as in my peach and apricot galette or cherry and dark chocolate galettes). Easy peasy!

In a skillet melt HALF the butter with honey and sugar over medium heat, stirring until smooth sauce forms. Pour sauce into prepared cake pan, arrange plum segments on top.

Mix flour, baking powder, cardamom and salt in a medium bowl, set aside. With a mixer, whip remaining butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and both extracts and whip until white and fluffy. Add 1/3 flour mixture, mix until just blended. Add 1/2 milk, then 1/3 flour, the rest of milk and flour, mixing until just combined.

Pour batter over plums, bake until golden, about 1 hr. Let cool in pan for about 15 min, run a knife around the edges and carefully invert onto serving platter. Serve warm, with whipped cream or ice cream.

56 comments:

Your photos are so striking, and the plums look almost like cherries they are so small and richly colored. Sorry about the cheesecake fail, but I think you've redeemed yourself with this cake. I'm heading straight for the plums tomorrow morning at the farmer's market!

Thank you Kristina. Yes, I just use the light from the window that creates a natural shadow. For these particular shots I did not use a reflector (I rarely do in general). The amount of shine on the cake can be controlled by a polarizing filter.

ohh i have been there. Resizing the portion only to realize it's too less for my big cake pan. I am not a huge fan of upside down cake but this one looks gorgeous and plums are so yummy these days! You are tempting me to bake a cake now ;)

Look, just look at all that jewelled gorgeousness! I recently baked an upside down apple cake drench in booze....and I can well imagine yours for a treat in a wispy summer's evening. Beautiful photographs.

I tried this today. Great recipe. Although I did find that the sauce separated quite a bit and did not look smooth like your photo. This did not make too much difference to the final result. I will be cooking this again!

I'm staying with parents who were given a huge bag of plums yesterday that were dead ripe, so I made this cake for them and it was SUCH a hit! Like one of the above posters, the plums were soft but not overly sweet, so the caramel helps counter that. I also made it with cinnamon and a touch of ginger because mom doesn't have cardamon - delish! Lastly, because my parents are diabetic, I used agave syrup and sugar replacements, and it STILL turned out amazing! Thank you so much!

Ok, So I'm back! I made this and it turned out wonderfully!! I don't think I've ever made an upside down anything, so I was very happy! I didn't have any cardamom, so I used cinnamon, and a dash of ginger and mace. I served it up with whip cream lightly dusted with purple sprinkles, and a fan-sliced plum, and it was just beautiful.... Only problem I encountered was that I served it before I took a picture. Drat! Oh well. Thanks for the recipe!! I'm sure you could use this exact recipe for any type of fruit too!

Just did the upside down plum cake and it turned out beautifully! only hitch was that it was too sugary for me and my friends :( also the crust was not as brown as shown in your pictures, though the cake was perfectly cooked and quiet soft and flaky! pls advice!

Planning on making this for tomorrow but i'd like to actually make it today as I have a lot to do tomorrow; should I turn it out today or leave it in the pan and turn it out tomorrow, maybe after reheating it a little?

Hi Paula, I am sorry I did not respond earlier. The caramel does not run on the plate, it gets absorbed into the cake. It is safe to invert it on the plate the day before. It does look best the day it is baked though.

I greatly appreciate your comments. There is nothing I like more than the two-way communication with my readers. Because I hate word verification I won't make you look at those squiggly letters... but I do have to moderate to protect from spam :).

About Me

Your search for authentic Russian recipes is over.

My name is Alina. Originally from Russia, I now live in Texas. Red Star to Lone Star, get it? :) I write both about the food from my home country and the new culinary discoveries I made after moving to America.